There was so much good music this year! Lots of exciting stuff from indie and major label artists, from “throwback-analogue-made-new” songs to “how-the-hell-did-they-make-that-sound?!?” songs. There were a bunch of great tracks that came directly from artists, and weren’t available in the major music libraries (special mention to A$AP Rocky’s “1 Train”).

Most of the songs on this year’s list come from albums that are also great, so if you like a song and haven’t heard the whole album, I recommend checking it out.

If you want to check me out on Spotify and follow my playlists throughout the year, I’m at m_shinoda. Also, shout out to the fans on Spotify who sent me Top 40 tracks, with messages like “Mike, have you heard this? You should check it out!” Way to keep me in the loop, guys.

Anyway, here at the 12 best songs of the year:

NOTE: I added a song, because it’s awesome! 13!

EDIT: I think I accidentally deleted this playlist. Oh well. I’m here on Spotify, and I have lots of other playlists for you to listen to: m_shinoda

With Stagelight now out for Windows, a number of you guys are checking it out. This week, I wanted to do something special for all our early adopters who are helping us spread the word: I made you guys a song.

This session can be downloaded and opened in Stagelight on Windows 7 or 8. It’s not an audio file and doesn’t contain any audio so (for now) only Stagelight users get to hear it.

For those of you who haven’t checked it out yet: Stagelight is a new music-making program designed by Open Labs and me. It’s the result of years of testing on stage and in the studio. With it, anyone at any level can make a great song in as little as a few minutes. It’s powerful and it’s simple, and you can buy it for only $10 HERE.

Saturday, we play the KROQ show in LA. Then next week, I’m going out to Austin for Dell World.

I haven’t been to Dell World before. As most of you know, I’ve been a Mac user my whole life, so I never really had an interest. But this year, as I was working on our new software called STAGELIGHT (which just came out for PC, and is only $10 *not-subtle-hint), I got a change to play with the new Dell XPS systems. And I have to say, I was intrigued. So here I am, doing a walk-on at their biggest event.

For anyone planning to go: there will be a “bio-sphere” on site of my creative space. It’s a small bubble-room filled with my art, music gear, and things I have around in my office and studio while I’m working. My sketchbook, guitar, art…stuff like that will be on display. There, you’ll also be able to use the Stagelight software to make your own music.

I’ll also be doing a performance with Chester and Camp Freddy. If you haven’t heard about Camp Freddy, it’s a rotating group of super-musicians and all stars who get together and casually jam out covers of some of the best songs of all time. In Camp Freddy performances, I’ve seen Chester sing Led Zeppelin, AC DC, and The Doors.

Here’s a taste of what to expect (Chester, Slash, Dave Navarro, Billy Morrison, and I can’t tell who else was there that night…)

Some of you have been seeing and passing around the link for this video, which is called “Why doesn’t MTV play videos anymore?” It’s pretty funny:

Super funny, right? But…in case any of you were thinking of taking it too seriously (I see you on Twitter)…in all fairness, MTV didn’t really switch to reality TV format ONLY because people started file sharing. A major factor was actually that playing videos didn’t allow them to get consistent ratings, since people kept switching stations. Kids might watch a couple videos they liked, but if a video came on that they didn’t, they would switch the channel. And then they might not come back, because most likely they changed the channel to a 30-minute program that they’d watch in entirety. So MTV changed to a format that allowed them to get ratings (and make more money, plus entertain people with “shows about vapid people”).

More importantly, the generation that grew up on MTV’s shows like Headbangers Ball and Yo! MTV Raps–aren’t really the generation who started file sharing in the early 2000s. That was the generation after them; the 1975-1985 generation were all out of college and had joined the workforce by then, and everyone knows it was the high school and college kids who were the first big wave that popularized file sharing. So those folks were born about 1985 or later.

In other words, the people who grew up looking to MTV for new cool music sometimes look back in sadness at the cancellation of those shows because the generation after them started changing the game. Which happens. And those sad nostalgic people do need to grow up, go find those videos on YouTube, and make a playlist or something.

Here’s a quick little barrage of stuff I’ve been into lately. First, a shout out to everyone affected by hurricane Sandy–Music for Relief is partnering with International Medical Corps to support mobile medical units in Haiti and Save the Children to support Child Friendly Spaces in the U.S. Donate here.

Moving on; I wasn’t going to blog about any of the following things individually, but as they added up, I thought I’d share them with you, in case you missed some or all of them.

Thanks to my buddy Tal for sending me this link. A great clip for all the experts and haters on the internet. Video / song by SKisM.

Kendrick Lamar’s “good kid m.A.A.d city” album just came out, and I’ve got it on repeat. With that said, this track was just made and released (not on the album), reportedly as a celebration that the album has been selling well and getting great reviews. Shout out to Kendrick and team.

Lastly (while you’re listening to that) check out these images from the new show coming up at Lazarides. I know I just blogged about their last show, but this new show is the kind of star-studded affair that makes me mad I’m not going to be in London to see it. JR, Conor Harrington, Micallef, Kelsey Brookes, and Banksy, among others:

This link is inevitably going to be pulled down, ha! But here’s the full Sao Paulo show, as shown on MULTI SHOW, Brazil. Big crowd, lots of energy…it felt like a great show, here’s how it looked to you guys at home.

I just got an email from the good folks at Lazarides Galleries. They’re doing their annual show at The Old Vic Tunnels. The show, BEDLAM, will feature works by Antony Micallef, Conor Harrington, Ian Francis, War Boutique, and others.

For many of us, Micallef is a favorite–truly a modern master. Lazarides gave me sent me images of these two incredible new pieces with you:

I first met STYLES OF BEYOND (S.O.B.) in the late ’90s, rapping at parties and with friends in the San Fernando Valley, north of L.A. Years later, I featured them on my Fort Minor album, on songs like Remember The Name and Believe Me.

After we wrapped up the touring for FM, the guys were signed to Linkin Park’s imprint Machine Shop Records. Above all, I believed in these guys, and I loved the music they made. Shortly thereafter, we began putting the finishing touches on an amazing album, Reseda Beach. Aside from the music they self-produced, we had tracks from J. Dilla and Scoop Deville, and even a super random cameo appearance by Michael Buble (which didn’t make album, but was an amazing experiment).

It was a very exciting time–I always felt like the album they put together showcased exactly what set this group apart from other rap collectives: their knack for setting a tone and vibe, their unique sense of humor, and their classic-sounding style.

As I mentioned HERE a while back, we had every intention of releasing the S.O.B. album on our imprint label, but we ran into roadblocks. When things got impossible, Styles Of Beyond split up, and decided to pursue separate interests. It was a terrible time, especially for them, but also for me–we had all put so much work and hope into this project, and it seemed that it might all go straight down the toilet.

But recently, thanks to persistent interest from fans, Ryu, Tak, Cheapshot, Skully, and some mutual friends decided to put out the album that we all put so much work into.

I’ve always been a big fan of this album, and I’m glad you’re all going to be able to hear it. Here’s one of my favorite tracks off the record, The Pirate Song:

So please support the guys, check this out, and spread the word. They’ve got a bundle that comes with a t-shirt, and another bundle that comes with a second CD (including many of the other tracks we recorded while making the album, featuring Bishop Lamont, Scoop Deville, Apathy, Celph Titled, and some guy named Mike Shinoda).